Have you noticed that, when approaching Springfield from the interstate, you occasionally see signs for "Lincoln Sites" rather than "Springfield"? My friend, Larry Lastchance pointed that out to me many years ago. So in 1989, I printed up some postcards like the one to the left. Nifty, eh? The years have rolled on and now it's time for the "Lincoln Sites Multi-cache" This is the first one. Maybe I'll make a sequel sometime. Many of these waypoints have little or nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln, but you'll get to walk where he walked. Surely that counts for something. The final geocache is about 2 miles from the starting point, but all of the other parts can be easily walked.
You'll start at the posted coordinates, which are near Lincoln's Home. Standing on the north side of the street, you are looking for the number of windows and chimneys that you can see on his house from this spot. The partially visible window counts as zero, as do the small basement windows. Multiply the number of chimneys by 2, giving you A. Subtract the number of chimneys from the number of windows, giving you F. Now go to waypoint 2.
Waypoint 2 is found at:
N 39° 47.881'
W 89° 38.783'
You are looking for a plaque near the door. How many letters are in the friend's first name? That number is B. Great! Now you are ready to go to Waypoint 3.
Waypoint 3 is found at:
N 39° 47.957'
W 89° 38.808'
I was hoping to have you find an NGS benchmark, but it's in the gated parking lot. So find the plaque on the stone monument by the sidewalk. [NOTE: Plaque might be gone. Use 1999 as the year!] The number of "eights" that are in the year equals G. Now take the last digit of the year and subtract one, giving you the value of H. Incidentally, if you face the plaque and look southwest (roughly 1 o'clock) through the bars of the fence, you will see the benchmark (a round disk) on a low window ledge. It's probably the easiest benchmark to find in the Springfield area. If you haven't been looking for these, be sure to have a look at geocaching.com's benchmark site. You can even log it! Anyway, now it's a short walk to Waypoint 4.
Waypoint 4 is found at:
N 39° 47.997'
W 89° 38.880'
This storefront, on the south side of the alley, is where I used to have my copy shop. This is where the postcards were printed so many years ago. Here is a photo of my Original Copy Company, circa 1987. At this spot, you'll need to find out what is the width of the door, in brown tiles. Take that number, subtract two and you'll have both E and J. Waypoint 5 is just around the corner!
Waypoint 5 is found at or near:
N 39° 48.028'
W 89° 38.884'
No, we're not going to that big, domed building. We're looking for the building on the corner. See, there really is some Lincoln stuff in this hunt. Because signal bounces around here so much, your GPSr may have you anywhere near the corner. Look for the building that says "Lincoln-Herndon" and find the plaque on the north side. The plaque mentions a "story" and the number of the story is C. It's a bit farther to waypoint 6, but not too much. You can still walk to it.
Alternate Work-around for Waypoint 5: From there, continue heading west down the mall. A few doors down is an 'antiquarian bookseller'. Add the three digits of their address and subtract 6. That will also give you the value for C. (Stop in and tell Rob and John I said hello!)
Waypoint 6 is found at:
N 39° 48.046'
W 89° 39.082'
Were you wondering if I was directing you to something significant? It sure doesn't look like it. Well, read that plaque on the big stone. A lot of locals don't even know about this one. Cool, huh? Jot down the number of children they had here for D. There is also a date in May mentioned and you need that number for I. Now, you'll want to go get your car to drive to the final geocache. Plug your numbers into the magic formula!
Final Geocache is found at:
N 39° AB.CDE'
W 89° FG.HIJ'
The container is a .30 cal ammo can marked as a geocache. There's not much of a deer trail to it. You'll duck under branches. Feel free to use the hint! Original contents included:
- Brand-new Don Henley CD
- Dexter rocket
- Koosh duck
- Wrist rest
- Rubik's cube
- Seattle radio station sticker
- The Misfit Train Travel Bug (personal favorite!)
- A camera (people took these photos with it
- A postcard (yes, one of THE postcards) for the first finder
Please re-hide carefully and cover, cover, cover the cache. Have fun!